Shopping? Not with turkey in the fridge
Once upon a time, the day after Thanksgiving was a day to lie
around, eat more leftovers, clean up the kitchen from the day
before, watch old movies, and in general, to be fat and lazy.
Now, we’re expected to go shopping.
I am beginning to resent this.
Shopping? Not with turkey in the fridge
Once upon a time, the day after Thanksgiving was a day to lie around, eat more leftovers, clean up the kitchen from the day before, watch old movies, and in general, to be fat and lazy.
Now, we’re expected to go shopping.
I am beginning to resent this.
I know that not so many years ago, no one had ever heard of “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday.” The day after Thanksgiving was still sacrosanct as far as being a perfect day to do not much of anything. (Which is to be expected, seeing as how we’re all doped up on tryptophan from the turkey.)
But in the 21st Century, for some reason, we’re all expected to get up at 4 a.m. and drive to the mall so that we can get super duper low prices on stuff. And more stuff.
I guess that wouldn’t be so bad, but I have a couple of friends who lord it over me that they went shopping on Black Friday and are now absolutely DONE with their Christmas lists. They brag about this like it was some kind of actual accomplishment.
This is extremely irritating to me, because it implies that I am some kind of holiday shopping slacker. Which I am not. I can shop with the best of ’em … it’s just that doing it on Black Friday doesn’t appeal to me.
Well, I have a question to put to all dedicated shopaholics out there: What’s the advantage?
First of all, I am constitutionally opposed to getting up when I don’t have to. That’s No. 1. And it’s a biggie. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, when no one has to be driven to school and I don’t have to be anywhere, sleeping in is a very good thing.
Secondly, who needs to battle the crowds? It’s not my idea of a fun time, clawing and fighting our way toward the latest edition of Talking Elmo, or whatever it is that people just have to have this year.
Thirdly, there are only so many of each of the cheap items at each store. Once they’re gone, that’s it. No rain checks. With my luck, I’d always arrive just as they were selling out of the sale item I wanted.
Fourthly, there is a definite possibility that I would buy something for someone and then change my mind about what I wanted to give that person. At Christmas time, I like to have days and weeks to look around so that I can choose the perfect presents.
Let’s face it: Am I really going to make good buying decisions at 4 a.m., still digesting turkey and mashed potatoes, pressured by the fact that I have made the effort to get to a store at 4 a.m. and I should be buying something?
No, of course not.
And fifth, there are still more than three weeks of shopping left to go. And maybe the best sales are yet to come. I can always hope.
So I did my best to ignore all the hype. I didn’t buy a thing on either Black Friday or Cyber Monday – my form of protest, I guess you could say.
Or maybe it was just laziness. I forget.
I think that too much turkey and mashed potatoes have shut my brain down for a while.
